I don't like to celebrate injuries but if I'm honest, Pienaar's injury may be a good thing. Hougaard is more threatening with ball in hand and consistently delivers better/quicker ball.

The pack also needs a shake up. Nyakane and van der Merwe should start in place of du Plessis and Beast who were basically non-factors over the weekend. Matfield too was invisible - which given his size is no mean feat. Get Lood in to start for him.

I know a lot of people are sh*tting on Willie le Roux, but he just had a bad day at the office. He has too much quality to not bounce back in a big way for the next test. For what it's worth I would drop Bismarck and Whiteley altogether...

Denton (the #8) is a product of South African schools rugby. He knows that these kinds of things are done to get a reaction and so ignored it. Good on him too because AstroTurf burn is never nice - especially on the face.

Munster1923,
I myself am an immigrant and have settled into a new country that I live in and have grown to love. I work here and my kids will be more from here than anywhere else. That being the case, I would not for one second want to deprive somebody the right to represent an adopted country - that just wouldn't be right. If all of that happens organically great, I don't take any issue. Richardt Strauss can pull on the blue and yellow of Ukraine for all I care.

For me it starts to get murky when international caps start to be dangled at players signing with foreign clubs. This prospect sweetens the pot and perhaps is the clincher for good talent. I agree its not as if these players are being taken at gunpoint but I feel that the spirit of the game is being hurt. A system similar to what goes on in US college sports may be appropriate; certain things are just flat out not allowed to be discussed or to be part of any contract even verbally.

At a minimum an "import" should:
- have lived in an adopted country for 4/5 years. This time period works because it minimizes dangling the chance to play at a world cup in front of young players.
- hold a passport of the new country. My understanding is that a three-year resident of an adopted country can represent that country even without being a citizen or holding a passport. Laughable.
- not have represented any other country at anything past U18.

Munster1923, you're missing my point. I never said being born in one country should stop you playing for another. What I said was that out and out recruiting for the purposes of bolstering your national team is the issue and needs to be stopped.

Of this wonderful list that you have compiled not a SINGLE one of those players was lured with a package to ultimately drive them to wear an SA jersey. Not even Beast Mtawarira. Beast endured a 35 hours bus journey from Bulawayo to Durban to try out for the Sharks and after making a name for himself was called up. Do you see the difference? I fear not.

As for the rest of the list, you must understand that the geopolitics of SA and the region skews things. The movement of the people between Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, Namibia, and SA is quite free and often families straddle these countries. As for all of the UK-born folks in that list they moved to he colonies for work, they were not lured to play rugby... Nick Mallett's father for example move him to Rhodesia 6 weeks after birth. Again, it's important that you see the difference.

As for Christian Stewart - who I have met and talked to about this very topic - he moved to SA as a child and learned the game and did his schooling there. Incidentally he is a dual international.

In a comment above you scoffed at me for suggesting that that each six nations team had at least one South African-developed player in their ranks recently. You may be right but off the top of my head: